KUMAON LITERARY FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES THE WINNER OF FON SOUTH ASIA SHORT STORY AWARD ON NATURE WRITING

New Delhi: Mumbai-based writer Meghna Pant bagged the 2016 FON South Asia Short Story Award on Nature Writing for her story People of the Sun. FON Award is an initiative of the Kumaon Literary Festival, in partnership with the French Institute of India and Wildlife Trust of India, to revive nature writing and through this form of literature bring the spotlight on critical environment issues. It is the first of its kind of literary award focusing on the pressing issue of climate change.

“Nature writing was once considered to be the rock and roll of literature. In the last few decades, it has shown a steady decline. Like all extinctions, nature writing’s gradual disappearance represents a profound loss. FON is our little effort to revive this art,” said Sumant Batra, the founder of the Kumaon Literary Festival.

Asha Batra, the Founder of FON Award said, “writing about the close relationship between humankind and nature plays an important role in creating interest and building respect for it amongst book lovers and others. There is a pressing need to restore this literary art”.

The winner of the FON Award was selected by an eminent international jury comprising of Jerry Pinto, Sidhartha Gigoo, Mridula Koshy and Shinie Antony from India, James Champion from the UK, Samrat Upadhyay from USA and Afia Aslam from Pakistan.

The winner will be awarded a cash prize of rupees one lakh at an event to be hosted in New Delhi by the French Ambassador in October.

Sujata Parashar, Director of FON added, “We received over 165 entries from South Asian countries. Some stories were of very high standard. We will soon be publishing an anthology of top few stories.

The first runner is Shabir Ahmad Mir from J&K and the second runner up is Vrinda Baliga from Hyderabad. Short stories of Richa Bhattari from Nepal and Amal Singh from Gaziabad made it to the FON shortlist of 5 top stories.